The dam

[Diane Amberg]

 

[sixdogsmom]

Waldo, I think his clock got knocked cuckoo! Back to the dam, of course I don't really know but usually there was a mill associated with most dams built on a stream that was near a town. There are the remnants of a mill on the wildcat west of Moline. Maybe that was what it was used for.

[Flintauqua]

There are the remnants of a mill on the wildcat west of Moline.

A mill on Wildcat west of Moline?  Brother Dan and I have viewed an awful lot of maps, and between Dan, my father Stub, and I, we have probably walked every foot of the different branches of the Wildcat from two miles below the Quarry all the way upstream to their sources.  I have never seen, nor heard of a mill site on the Wildcat, except in the vicinity of the K99/US160 bridge.  The only other spot I can think of looking like a mill site would be the remains of the old, old city lake dam, just above the low water bridge on road 12, one mile west of town, then south just past the railroad tracks. 

If you know otherwise, please elaborate, as I am always searching for additional geographical/historical info about the Moline area, and all of Elk County. 

[Delmonico]

Hello, I ain't been here in a while, but had some time and thought I would stop by.

One thought maybe, up here in south east Nebraska some of the towns had small power plants on both the Big Blue and Little Blue Rivers.  I have been to several of these sites near Milford, Crete and Fairbury.  Could that have been what the dam was originally built for?

[flintauqua]

I'm 99% sure that the low-flow dam at Howard was built only to create a point to draw drinking water from, and not to mill anything or create electricity.  The Elk just doesn't have enough volume or continuity of flow at that point.

Sixdogsmom:  still waiting for my answer about a millsite above Moline.

[Delmonico]

OK, it was just a thought since we had so many around here at one time, The north Fork of the Big Blue where the dams were for Crete and Milford though are only about 75 feet wide bank to bank and most places you can ford it with out getting your belt wet.

[sixdogsmom]

Flint, I posted what I was told about that site years ago. I was told that this persons' sister had done a highschool paper about it. That is what I know, and I must yield to folks who have lived here most of their life. I will let them sort it out as it is really unimportant to me who is correct.